Holy Priest Tomb of Sargeras Gearing

As the opening of the Tomb continues to inch closer, more and more questions of what our best in slot (BiS) list is. With the titanforging system currently in place, and the fact that we gain value from every stat, it is impossible to come up with a definitive list of the best items for every slot since a piece from a dungeon, trash mob, even previous Legion raid could proc high enough and become BiS. The only items we can feasibly develop a BiS list for are Trinkets, and Relics.

That said, a very important part of Tomb is the tier gear we get access to. We are lucky in that we have one of the most powerful if not the most powerful set bonus of all the healing classes.

Tier 20

The synergy we have built into our class is centered around our holy words and using them as much as we are able to. The tier 20 set increases the frequency at which we can use them granting us greater flexibility and greater output.

Our T19 2pc bonus has treated us well, and due to it’s design has inflated the value of our mastery. When looking at trying to optimize your stat line in T20 gear (keeping in mind your stats only amplify your casting patterns) below is a rough guide on balancing your stats once you drop the T19 2pc. This is using a raid healing casting profile.

7.2.5 Raid Stat Balance

Just like in 7.2.0, equip your legendaries, tier pieces, and your highest level items in the other armor slots and balance your remaining stats with jewelry pieces. Do not stress if you can’t meet the recommended stat line. You’ll be fine.

Tier 19 2P with T20 4P

Along with requests for a BiS list, there has been a lot of interest in running mixed sets. While great in theory, this requires two things:

Limits legendaries to non tier slots

T19 items will need a good titanforge

X’anshi, Shroud of Archbishop Benedictus‘s utility in progression raiding is amazing. There are almost no words for it between the quick resets between pulls, soaking mechanics, saving food/rune buffs and repair bills, and even a potion reset allowing for up to three potions per encounter. It is also lot of mana free spell casting when proc’d and does not consume a battle rez charge.

Even now with no T20 available, the T19 bonus is still only worth so much. With a sufficient item level gap, it is worth it to drop the T19 2P for the higher level item following the guidelines below.

Tier 19 Replacement Guidelines

While the above table makes the Tier 19 2pc look powerful (which it is on it’s own), the T20 4pc is even more amazing, you can see it’s estimation on the holy priest spreadsheet here. You should absolutely prioritize the T20 4pc over the T19 2pc. Your goal should be to obtain the T20 4pc using any combination of non-legendary gear you choose to.

Legendaries

Along with new tier, a new raid, and other changes within the Broken Islands, 7.2.5 also gave us two new legendaries; The Alabaster Lady and the Soul of the High Priest. These two have shifted our legendary rankings slightly, though the top few keep their place. Take a look at Niphyr’s notes on the 7.2.5 changes for a little analysis on the new legendaries.

7.2.5 Legendary Rankings

Relics

The first piece of gear that we can start to say “here is a farmable BiS list” are relics. Below is a ranking of the relics found within the Tomb of Sargeras

As luck would have it, Boon of the Prophet is a holy relic allowing us to easily obtain two high level BiS trait relics giving us even greater throughput after dealing with NH’s slim relic choices.

Note: Power of the Naaru and Words of Healing also provide 1 Weapon Level benefit but are not found within the Tomb.

Trinkets

With the 7.2.5 launch, the crafted gear cap has been raised to 900. This makes Darkmoon Deck: Hellfire very competitive until you obtain 905+ trinkets, and increases the viability of Darkmoon Deck: Promises if a mana trinket is needed for longer progression encounters. The trinkets available in Tomb of Sargeras are ranked against some of the common 7.2 trinkets in the tables below. All trinkets are 900 ilvl except for Velen’s Future Sight.

More detailed information on each trinket’s performance can be found in the holy priest spreadsheet here.

One important thing to note, is Sea Star of the Depthmother is currently over-performing pre-ToS expectations, more information about it’s current behavior is located here.

Mana Trinkets

The 7.1.5 changes shifted mana regen trinkets into a niche area. We have relied upon the Enlightenment talent and proper spell usage in order to manage our mana for the vast majority of content over the last two patches. Mana trinkets were only recommended for the longer progression encounters (Gul’dan specifically). If a mana trinket is needed in Tomb, they are ranked below in order to provide as complete information as possible.

More detailed information on each trinket’s performance can be found in the holy priest spreadsheet here.

Summary

In conclusion, the Tomb of Sargeras has a lot of great gear for us, from an amazing tier set, to several great trinkets, and our top relic trait (it’s even a holy relic!). In addition to bosses with tier that do not conflict with your legendaries, Mistress Sassz’ine, Sisters of the Moon, Fallen Avatar, and Kil’jaeden are great bosses to bonus roll on.

Tomb of Sargeras Loot Table

Resources

If you have any interest in getting custom rankings of relics, trinkets, or stat weights; you can take a look at the holy priest spreadsheet here.

9 Comments

Neth

Really awesome work, very clear and easy to follow, thanks for taking the time do write it!

I gotta say I’ve been sticking to Promises but I’m curious why it’s not really recommended. If my math is right, 900 Promises over a 6 minutes fight assuming 30 CPM should add up to (on average) 360k mana, ie 33% of our initial 1.1Mil. This in turns allow much more spellcasting (or casting more costly spells aka PoH), and, at least in M NH, would get me to the end of fights (like Botanist) just right with a leytorrent potion during the fight. The additional mana is also useful during progression fights to be able to recover from unexpected damage triggered by mistakes.
I’m concerned that I would have to take breaks in my casting if I remove Promises, breaks that would add up to a throughput loss that would be higher than the gain from an actual throughput trinket.

Thirty mana expending casts per minute is a really high estimation. That doesn’t allow for much, if any movement, smite, feather, potions, Blessing of Tuure or trinket usage. We’ve been seeing mana casting cpms more in the 21-23 range (could change once mythic Tomb opens), which is pretty close to an additional leytorrent on a 6 min encounter. It is also very difficult to assign hpm values to mana saved, so many assumptions have to be made.

The int of a 900 Promises is great, but if the extra mana isn’t spent on poh/sanc (our most efficient/highest healing spells then it’s benefit falls behind the better trinkets in tomb especially as their ilvl increases.

A couple questions. If you were using Legendary trousers and cloak for raiding which 3 relics would be ideal? Also, how can you comfortably heal with only 12-14 haste? I just can’t do that. Way too slow of a cast time for me. Appreciate the time and information provided. Well done!

Hitting those stats aren’t mandatory at all, haste is still largely personal, anywhere from 10-20% will be fine, most priests fall closer to 13-18%. None of our gear changes how the relics rank, SYP is still by far the best raiding trait we have, and really, the legs make it a little stronger since there’s more (and longer) renews to leave behind.